Michael Caine Wouldn’t Work With Woody Allen Again

In an era marked by #MeToo and Time’s Up, big players in Hollywood who have long been under scrutiny are becoming less and less popular as the rest of the industry attempts to distance themselves from them. One figure who’s remained where others have disappeared is Woody Allen, whose career has survived sexual assault allegations for decades, and who is now finally feeling pressure. A number of actors who have worked with him in the past have said that, in light of everything that’s been going on, they wouldn’t do so again — including, as of this weekend, Michael Caine.

Caine gave a very in-depth interview to The Guardian, in which he discussed his career, his family, aging, and the movies he’s still planning to make. One subject that came up was, naturally, Hollywood’s reckoning with industry harassment, and Caine said that, while he didn’t regret working with the director in the past, he wouldn’t do so again.

I am so stunned. I’m a patron of the NSPCC [the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children] and have very strong views about pedophilia. I can’t come to terms with it, because I loved Woody and had a wonderful time with him. I even introduced him to Mia [Farrow]. I don’t regret working with him, which I did in complete innocence; but I wouldn’t work with him again, no.

Caine starred in and won an Oscar for Allen’s 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, in which he played a man who begins an affair with his wife’s sister. Caine introduced Allen to former wife Mia Farrow in 1979, who then starred alongside Caine and Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters. Allen has repeatedly denied Dylan Farrow’s sexual assault allegations.